InCopyFlow 13: Overlooked Features, Fix for a Gotcha, Call for Beta Testers, more

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Date: January 27th 2009

*** InCopyFlow ***

Tips and techniques for Adobe InCopy/InDesign Workflow Users

In this Issue:
-- What I Did on My InCopyFlow Vacation -- 3 Often Overlooked Features in InCopy -- Tight Budget? Get More Out of IC/ID For Less -- A Fix for a Remote Workflow Gotcha
-- Looking for Beta Testers!

Issue 13, 1/27/09
Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion ... for her InCopy workflow clients, colleagues, and interested subscribers

What I Did on My InCopy Vacation

Astute readers probably noticed that I haven't sent out an InCopyFlow issue in a while .... a loooong while ... but I'm happy to say, I'm back to my monthly schedule!

I've received some e-mails from worried subscribers thinking they must have accidentally unsubscribed. No, it's all my fault. The simple truth is that as 2008 progressed, I just became overwhelmed with other projects, and had to sacrifice it to the greater good. It wasn't just InCopyFlow that suffered, but also my other e-zine, DesignGeek, and a few other obligations.

(As least you had my sporadic posts to the InCopySecrets.com blog to keep you occupied; the DesignGeekers got nuthin.' But they're back in the game, now, too.)

Most of what kept me hopping in the latter half of 2008 was working on Adobe CS4-related projects. I won't bore you with the details, with the exception of the one that's the most relevant to you: I recorded a new Lynda.com video training title on InDesign and InCopy.

InCopy CS4 and InDesign CS4 Workflow Essential Training http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=651

If you go to that page, you'll see that are about 75 all-new individual video lessons organized into 15 logical chapters, for a total running time of 9 hours. You can see some of the introductory lessons for free (including the What's New in InCopy CS4 video -- highly recommended to you CS3 users out there), but to see the entire title you have to either subscribe to lynda.com (as little as $25 for a one-month subscription) or buy the DVD for $99.00.

IC/ID CS4 Workflow Essentials is roughly divided into three sections: An general introduction to the workflow, a bunch of chapters specifically about using the editorial features in InCopy; and then a number of chapters about the back-and-forth between InDesign and InCopy (prepping layouts for InCopy, using assignments, working with remote editors, troubleshooting, and so on.)

Since I had the benefit of a year's worth of viewer feedback from my previous IC/ID CS3 Workflow video title (which is still available on lynda.com), I was able to tinker with the outline a bit so I could fit in more information. For example, I added a new chapter, "Advanced Text Editing in InCopy" with lessons that cover footnotes, cross-references, conditional text, tables, and hyperlinks. I was even able to squeeze in a lesson on using the free built-in scripts, a gold mine that very few editors ever discover.

If you watch the videos, I'd love to hear what you thought -- good, bad, or what's missing. I can always record more!

3 Often Overlooked Features in InCopy

One luxurious aspect of recording video tutorials (you heard me, I said luxurious) is that there's plenty of time to talk about all the features I think users should know about. It's such a different experience than doing live InCopy/InDesign training, where time is limited, and I'm keeping an eye on the clock to make sure I cover the material most critical to everyone's success with their first projects.

Here are three features that I'm often forced to skip. They're not critical to anyone's success, but they're useful nonetheless. (I console myself with the thought that users really can't appreciate their utility until they have a few InCopy projects under their belt, anyway.)

Number One: Rename Stories

Any InDesign or InCopy user can rename the stories in the Assignments panel so they make more sense. It's easy: Just check the story out, then click once on its name. The current name becomes selected in an editing box, and whatever you type replaces the selection. For instance, in a feature article, you might want to change the automatic names InDesign used for its stories, "Magazine-Blah," "Magazine-Blahblah," and "Magazine-Blahba" to something more human, like "Headline," "Body," and "Sidebar."

Doing so doesn't rename the linked InCopy files on the server, just in the interface, so you don't have to worry about breaking any links. Best of all, through the magic of a little XML file that's created in the background, your new names stick with the file -- whoever opens the document in InDesign or InCopy will see the custom names. And they'll thank you.

Number Two: Edit the Toolbars

Wouldn't it be nice to have a dropdown list of paragraph styles in a toolbar, a la Microsoft Word? You can make this happen in InCopy (but not in InDesign ... drat!). In InCopy, find the Paragraph Styles panel (it's probably in the dock on the right side of the monitor) and drag its name to any empty area in the top or bottom toolbar. When you see a vertical blue line appear at the left of the empty area, release the mouse button. Done. To convert it back to a floating, dockable panel, drag it out of the toolbar by its handle, a dark grey vertical strip to the left of its section in the toolbar .

You can even create a completely new toolbar. Drag a panel name directly under the top toolbar or above the bottom one until you see a long blue horizontal line appear, then release the mouse button. A new toolbar is created and the controls in the panel you were dragging appear within it.

Not all panels can become toolbars, but try it with your favorites. It's amazing how much time you can save by placing the controls you use most often in more convenient locations for you. To save the new arrangement, choose Window > Workspace > Save Workspace, and name it.

Number Three: View Story and Layout Side-by-Side

The three views available to InCopy users -- Galley, Story, and Layout -- are great, but they'd be even more useful if you could see them side-by-side once in a while, instead of flipping between the tabs. You might want to edit copy in Story view, for example, but would like to see how your edits affect the Layout view as you work.

You can do that by creating multiple windows for the same document. Start by selecting one of the views you want in the current document window -- let's say Story, for this example. Now, go to the Window menu and choose Arrange > New Window. You'll see a duplicate window appear in the same View mode as the original window. It's important to note that you're not duplicating any files here, you're just opening up more views of the same file. Whatever you do in one window is replicated in the other window, and in the single document both are showing you.

The new window has the same View mode active as the other one, so switch its view to Layout. Also, the window is overlapping the original one, so choose Window > Arrange > Tile Vertically. InCopy resizes both windows so they fit completely on your monitor, side-by-side. Now, as you edit text in one window (in Story view), your edits are immediately reflected in the other window (in Layout view). You may need to click in the other window occasionally to see a cleaner view of your changes, the screen redraw can get a little wonky.

There is one limitation to this method: The windows don't scroll concurrently. (That's actually a feature, not a bug -- it means you can edit a story in one window and see how it affects the jump in the other window in real time.) For same-page edits, this method works great, but if you're moving around the document in one window and want the other window to keep up, you'll have to manually scroll it into position.

Get More Out of IC/ID For Less

In these scary financial times, especially for publishing, it's easy to forget that the people who actually write and design the publications you sell are revenue producers, not expenses. They deserve to be supported in any way possible, because without them, you wouldn't have a product. (Can I get a witness? Heh. I thought so, with this crowd.)

Luckily, your department had the forethought to move to an InCopy and InDesign workflow, which is undoubtedly saving the company time and money, sometimes quite a bit. And if the guy or gal who pushed everyone to move to the workflow is still around, go over there and give them a pat on the back for contributing to your job security.

That said, there's always room for improvement. I've yet to encounter a designer, writer, or editor who's solved every InDesign/InCopy glitch, come up with a workaround for every missing feature, accomplished tasks in the most efficient way, or is adept at eking out the value of every function the workflow have to offer.

If that sounds like you and your revenue-producing colleagues, consider scheduling a short, targeted "Advanced InCopy Workflow" (or "Troubleshooting InDesign and InCopy," etc.) online training session with me. You can check off "staff development" from your to-do list and solve a lot of pesky production problems at the same time. There's no travel involved, and keeping the session short -- say, two hours -- means it's easier to schedule and keep everyone engaged. We meet in Seneca's online screen-sharing classroom while on a conference call, so all that students need is a web browser and phone. They take the class right at their desk and can ask questions, send me sample files, and so on.

With limited training budgets, a lot of our clients have opted for this lower cost approach to learning the workflow, so over the past few months we've been able to iron out most wrinkles with the technology. I think it's especially useful for those groups who've been using the workflow for awhile, because it's only after you've done a few projects that you know the questions you should have asked at the start!

Hmmmm .... this is sounding like an advertorial, isn't it? LOL. I guess I just wanted to acknowledge the financial situation many publishers are facing, and offer at least one way for you to fully reap the benefits of your investment without breaking the bank. If you'd like more information on what could be covered in a session or an informal quote, please contact me or my training coordinator, Sherri Austin (sherri@senecadesign.com), or give us a ring at 312-946-1100.

And now, back to the tips.

A Fix for a Remote Workflow Gotcha

Periodically I receive support e-mails from clients who are having some trouble with the e-mail-based Assignments feature ("Package for InCopy") when they work with off-site editors. The first round goes fine: The designer sends an assignment package to editor, the editor opens it, edits it, and returns an InDesign package to the designer, who opens it and updates the layout with the editor's changes.

The problem some users report is what happens if they need to do a "round 2" of the remote workflow. After updating the layout, the designer makes some design-related changes, and then sends out another package of the same assignment to the same editor.

Now, normally, the software handles this with aplomb. When InCopy opens the second package and unpacks it to the user's InCopy Assignments folder (in My Documents on Windows, or the Documents folder on Macs), it finds the original assignment's files and updates them with the contents of the new version. This is all done silently, behind the scenes. All the editor sees is a new version of the assignment opening in InCopy.

But other times -- perhaps due to different time zones, or maybe sun spots or karma, I haven't figured it out -- InCopy gets confused. After it opens the INCP file, but before it unpacks anything, it puts up an alert asking if the user wants to make the older version of the assignment the current one. And something about "losing your edits." Whaaa?

If you're an editor and you see this alert and you can't figure out what to do, just click the Cancel button so nothing gets unpacked or replaced. Ask your designer to cancel the package on their end and send you a new one with a renamed assignment.

To cancel a package in InDesign, open the layout with the packaged assignment (identified by its cute little package icon). Select it in the Assignments panel and then choose Cancel Package from the Assignment panel menu. That converts it back to a regular assignment and makes the stories available again.

At this point, you as the InDesign user should rename the assignment in the Assignments panel. You don't have to check anything out. Just click once directly on the assignment name in the panel to edit the name in place, or double-click it to edit the name in the Assignment Options dialog box. My suggestion is to simply append a "v2" to the existing name. Now select the renamed assignment and choose the Package for InCopy command again.

When the editor receives the new package, InCopy will see the new assignment name, and so it will unpack it into a completely new folder named for the assignment in their InCopy Assignments folder. It sees no conflict with any existing assignment folder in there and so there's no need for it to put up an alert.

Looking for Beta Testers!

For the past few months I've been working with some whiz-bang InDesign and InCopy plug-in developers to come up with solutions for frequently-requested features, specifically for InCopy/InDesign users who are using the "commando" workflow (straight off the shelf, no third-party systems like K4 or SmartConnection) .

One of these solutions that I'm really excited about is a versioning plug-in. It allows InCopy users to save versions of stories, with optional comments, and roll back to them if necessary.There's no need for Version Cue as the versioning is completely self-contained in the plug-in.

The plug-in is ready for early testing by end users. Anyone out there interested? We need some feedback. At this point, the software only works on Macs running InCopy CS3. Once we get features in place, we'll do a Windows version and also make them available for CS4 users.

So if you're a Mac user with InCopy CS3 and you'd like to check out this new plug-in, please email me at amarie@senecadesign.com with the phrase IC BETA TESTER in the subject line and I'll send you the details. As is usual with beta programs, active participants will receive a free copy of the software when it's released.

If you're on Windows but would like to participate in the beta at a future point (or want information on what else we've got cooking), let me know that too!

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* GET UP TO SPEED WITH INCOPY AND INDESIGN

Do you like what you read in InCopyFlow? Find anything useful? Bring me or any of my hand-picked Associate Geeks in for a session or two of hands-on training for your workgroup; here in Chicago or any other city near an airport, and you can have this level of expertise all to yourself. Or, save money and time by scheduling a remote, web-based training session; it works great and there's no travel expenses. All training comes with three years of 24/7 follow-up support for each student by phone or e-mail.

To learn more, or hear what other clients have to say, contact us or fill out the no-obligation "Request a Training Quote' form on Seneca's site: http://www.senecadesign.com/training/request.html

Recent InCopy/InDesign workflow training clients in Chicago and parts beyond include the Thompson Publishing Group (regulatory manuals); PricewaterhouseCoopers (collateral); American Bar Association (journals); Exhibitor Magazine (magazines and collateral); Sheshunoff (compliance manuals); and Scranton Gillette Communications (magazines). *^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

InCopyFlow is a free publication written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion, a design studio owner, software trainer and publishing consultant based in Chicago, with clients around the country. She's an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in InDesign and InCopy and an independent Adobe Certified Instructor specializing in helping workgroups master the InDesign/InCopy workflow. Anne-Marie owns Seneca Design & Training, Inc. (http://www.senecadesign.com/) and runs the InCopySecrets.com blog, as well as co-hosting the InDesignSecrets.com blog and podcast.

Don't hog this all to yourself! Pass it on to your hard-working colleagues so they can learn some tips too, they'll thank you for it.

This part is for them: To learn more about the InCopyFlow e-zine, go to its home on the InCopySecrets.com blog: http://incopysecrets.com/incopyflow

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Copyright 2009 by Seneca Design & Training, Inc. Please forward without cutting. Please contact Seneca for reprint permissions. We don't guarantee accuracy of articles. Company or product names mentioned in InCopyFlow may be registered trademarks, we use the names in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement.